It may not have been just the vivid characters or the tense plots that kept people coming back to Breaking Bad. Some fans – and of course we can’t know how many – seem also to have valued it as a source of practical advice and information.

Prosecutors in the ongoing trial of Kuntal Patel claim that she tried to murder her mother with abrin, a poison similar to the ricin used by Walter White. The plot, they told the court, was “inspired, in part, by the US television series Breaking Bad”. Meanwhile, in Florida, one truly devoted fan is awaiting trial after 318kg of synthetic marijuana was allegedly found at his home during a police raid in January. A year ago, in happier times, Ryan Carroll was discovering that he had won a raffle to watch the Breaking Bad series finale at a cast party in Los Angeles. “People can relate to the main character,” he said, when asked why the show was so successful. Perhaps his trial will determine just how much.

Last year, Stephen Doran, a teacher in Boston who had been diagnosed with cancer, was charged with trafficking methamphetamine after 480g of it was allegedly delivered to him. Three years previously, blue methamphetamine was found in Kansas, possibly in imitation of Walter White’s own product. In Spokane, Washington, Jason Hart is currently on trial for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Regan Jolley, following which it is claimed he tried to dispose of her body in the same way that Walter White and Jesse Pinkman do, by dissolving it in acid.

If these cases are proven, they will of course be only the latest examples in a long tradition of copycat criminality. Often a rather spurious tradition, it must be said. Shortly after their release, both A Clockwork Orange and Natural Born Killers were often accused of inspiring real violence. Even now scarcely a month goes past without a “real Fight Club” being reportedly discovered somewhere.

Indeed the media (who, us?) are sometimes very ingenious in their search for this kind of connection between art and life. This week, the case of Shane Cousins has been reported more or less universally as another real-life Breaking Bad. In fact, his tumour was not cancerous, he was a hopeless cannabis-grower, and he makes no mention of Walter White in any report of his behaviour. He preferred Channel 5’s rather less glamorous Police Interceptors.

Ralph Steadman has joined up with Vince Gilligan to create limited edition Blu-ray cases for all five seasons of Breaking Bad. Walter, Jesse, Gus, Mike, Hank and Saul each feature on a cover. They will go on sale from February 2015